McAfee Products Dodgy Crap? Nah, you must be mistaken I mean even their Public Betas get glowing reviews from zzzzzdnet. Four outta five dots from the Editor. Wow. Oh wait what's this - average user rating 6 out of 10. Hmmm. Seems a tad strange. And look at all those nasty things users say about it.

Now, what I'd really like to see a story on is how people like ZDNet get away with consistently showing favoritism. I been thinking about changing careers and it'd be nice to know how much cash I can really count on making working for one of the Meccas-of-Disinformation like ZDNet.

I've just read your article about delays in BT's ADSL rollout. To quote, "He said BT now had 2,000 engineers in the field working to install ADSL products". And "BT Broadband also confirmed that 14,000 end users had been connected to ADSL". Unless my maths has begun to fail me, that's seven ADSL users connected per esteemed 'engineer'. Being kind to BT, let's say that's since the beginning of September - eight weeks. So each engineer's only managing less than one installation a week?

"It is currently installing ADSL at around a rate of 5,000 end users a month". A whole 2.5 installations per engineer per month, then? "...and intends to increase that to 15,000 by March 2001". Assuming they're not simultaneously increasing the number of engineers, a staggering 7.5 installations per engineer per month? Each installation lasting less than 4 days? It's almost as if BT didn't actually want to get ADSL installed. Alternatively, they haven't the foggiest clue what they're doing.

I'm writing regarding your article "BSA deploys imaginary pirate software detector vans" because I think you've missed a salient point. According to your article the BSA staged this performance in Glasgow. It is very hard for those of us fortunate enough not to live in Glasgow to understand the inhabitants ("weegies").

While the BSA's performance may appear to be "one of the most insane things we've heard in years" from an outsiders point of view, I think a lot of "weegies" will have rushed home as quickly as possible (bearing in mind they probably only had one shoe on *) to "cop a couple of jellies" (temazepam) after the shock and considering most "weegies" suffer from drug induced paranoia the campaign may at least in Glasgow be more successful then you imagined.

I would be grateful if you would not use my name in any references as my sister is a weegie and they know where I live.

Best regards
Flapper

*weegies only wear the one shoe because shoe shops only display one for them to steal

I would like to add something about the story you wrote on the Register.

True, people weren't too happy with the outcome of the UMTS auction. Some 20 billion guilders (more than twice as much as the amount you note) had been predicted, while the result was a "meagre" 5.9 billion. There were questions in parliament, and the general opinion was that the setup of the auction had been rather stupid - nothing new, really.

But if it weren't for Versatel pushing up the prices, the only one of the six bidders that didn't have a GSM license, the government would have cashed even less - probably something in the tens or hundreds of millions. But then suddenly, Versatel pulled out, crying that Telfort (100% owned by BT now) had bullied them. Apparently, Telfort had told Versatel in a letter that playtime was over, and that the big boys would take the five licences.

The reaction of the government, however, was that nothing bad had happened, and that there would be no investigation. This is in direct contrast with what you imply ("Now, is it any wonder that the Dutch and Italian governments have launched enquiries [...]?".) It wouldn't hurt to check some facts first.

The reason that there is an investigation now from the government - which is not the NMa - is that Versatel filed suit and demanded that there would be such an investigation. Last week, the judge ruled in their favour.

Apart from this is the investigation by the NMa, about the proceedings *before* the start of the auction. They raided Telfort and Versatel on Friday. The NMa is the body that implements the Competition Act, so I doubt it's a mere instrument for the government. Their Web site doesn't claim that they're independent, but then again, their Web site isn't very informative at all.

After all, if the NMa would decide that there was a deal between Telfort and Versatel, parliament would probably demand that the auction would be cancelled and redone, with very large claims from the five licencees as a result, because they already started their roll-out. They want to take their six billion and leave it at that.

I just wanted to put things into perspective, since the suggestion that the government is after more money, would best be described by the Dutch expression "het raakt kant noch wal". As for parliament, that's something different. But because there's no two-party system here, parliament is generally more independent from the government than in some other countries.

I agree on your remark about BT, though. I used to work for them. Used to.

Cheers,
Peter

You people in Europe seem quite offended by the fact that we in America hold the position of power that we do, because we are a country that puts individual liberty FIRST. Why is that ???? What follows below is nothing more that a childish reaction to your jealousy arising from living in a country that was ONCE the leader of the world and now, is not.

(((Of course, on a different level, this is quite entertaining. After years and years of the US telling everyone else in the world where they can go and what they can do (e.g. with reference to Cuba), it's good to see that the great America is being told what it has to do in other people's countries. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it)))

Poor Dimitri. His youthful ebullience, carelessness, and cocksure ego are likely to give him a closer look at Old Bailey (or it's equivalent) than he could imagine. In the world vs. dog, it's the dog that usually gets kicked. And I'm afraid that Dimitri will learn this lesson the hard way.